The Only Exception

Twenty

~Lainey~

"Spencer?" I push open my bedroom door, the room a complete mess with everything either shattered or littering the floor. 'Whore' and 'waste of space' is splattered across the walls in red spray paint but I'm focused on the figure stood in the middle of the room. In his light grey jogging bottoms, exactly how he was when I left to go to school so I didn't have to look at him however long ago it was. 

"This is all your fault."  He glares at me but I can't make out his eyes they're so dark. Just black holes where his pretty blue eyes should be. "Of course no one's coming for you Lainey. You're fucking useless. No one wants you." 

"I'm sorry." I feel tears breaking down my cheeks. "I'm sorry. I was so scared-" I reached for him and he faded, got shorter, grew hair and, although the eyes were the same, I wasn't sure who this was or what was happening. "Spencer?" 

"Worthless." The voice says. "You couldn't keep your mouth shut. One secret Lainey. One secret and everything would be fine but you couldn't do that. I never wanted you. No one wanted you. No could ever want you." 

Gunshots wake me from what I can only call a half assed nap, immediately making me sit up in the corner. In the whole time I've been here, not once have I heard a gun. There's a collection of shouting and the shouting turns to more gunshots. A few come through the plasterboard walls but my head is so heavy from the nightmare and I can't see clearly through the tears I'm trying to fight off. 

Tires squeal against the flooring, smoke and the smell of burning rubber filling the room through the tiny holes. The shouting continues, though the guns have now ceased but that's not the end of it. I wipe my eyes quickly as feet pounding the floor outside the room gets louder, pulling the door open.  The room floods with a much too bright orange light and I'm blinded. 

"Sunshine? Fuck." I squeeze my eyes tighter. I'm still dreaming. I have to still be dreaming. "Come on Lanes, can you get up baby?" He grabs for my arm, a pained scream tearing through my voice box as I snatch it back, trying to back myself into the corner so they don't touch me again. Andrew said no one would do it again. He said they wouldn't. "Hey, woah. Sunshine. Lainey. It's me beautiful. Open your eyes." I shake my head. No. I don't want to. I don't want to open my eyes and see they've found another cruel way to torture me. "Okay. Okay. But we've gotta go Lanes so I'm gonna move you." I wriggle as he wraps the sheet around me, covering my  ruined clothes, scooping me up into his arms. "Let me know if I hurt you. I don't mean to but we need to get you out of here before they come back." 

He bends down, sitting down wherever we are and pulls me into his lap. I can feel the car door behind my back and he flicks a light on, it burns through my eyelids. 

"I know Sunshine. I know it's bright beautiful but I need to see what's going on okay? I'll turn it off in a second." The car door slams shut, another opens and there's a clicking of seatbelts. "Close the visor." His deep voice vibrates into the arm pressed against him and there's a click, immediately followed by him pressing a long hard kiss to my forehead. "I need you to open your eyes Sunshine." He holds a hand over the light slightly. "Can you do that for me?" 

I swallow my anxiety, opening my eyes carefully. He looks like Spencer. Smells like him, sounds like him, feels like him. His blue eyes are in his head not the black holes and I feel myself let out a whimper. 

"Where are you hurt Sunshine? I need to know so I can fix it." 

"Arm." 

"Just your arm?" I nod. "You've got some pretty bad cuts." He swipes a thumb over my cheek. I kind of remember a knife. I don't know. Could have been dreaming though. "I hope you know I'm not letting you out of my sight ever again." I nod, so quickly and so hard I fear my head might fall off. He gives me a weak smile that lasts only a second. His eyes flick over the sheet covering me and he scowls, leaning slightly "Wanna get out of these clothes? I've got a tee-" 

"Spencer?" He turns his head back to me. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't hav-" 

"No no no no no. This is not your fault Lainey. None of this is your fault Sunshine. Which arm is hurt?" I held it up slightly and he nods, pulling me up using the other, dragging me until I'm straddling him.  He grabs my face between his hands. Thumbs swiping at the stains on my cheeks. "This is not your fault. In any way, shape or form. I am not, nor have I been mad at you for anything okay? Tell me you understand that Lainey." 

"I- I left and I could have- I didn't have-" 

"Not your fault. You got in the car with someone you thought you could trust. That we all thought we could trust. Okay? That's not your fault." He pulled the shirt off over my head, pulling one of his printed tee shirts on before reaching under to remove my bra and putting them in a pile on the seat beside him. "I missed you. So fucking much." He pulls my hair back off my face, pulling a hair tie off his wrist and wrapping my hair up like he was an expert in putting someone's hair into a pony tail. "2 weeks I've been looking for you fucking everywhere. I haven't slept Lainey. I worked out where you were a few days ago but we had to- I had to pull my guys from fucking everywhere so I wasn't coming in here alone. I couldn't get you out of here without help otherwise I'd have been here earlier. I swear I would have been." I laid my head down into the crook of his neck, planting a soft kiss on him there before nuzzling myself into the spot. 

"You came." 

"Of course I did. I told you. I'm not going anywhere and I'm definitely not going to leave you in that am I? I told you that you're mine Lainey." His arms wrapped around me protectively, squeezing me tight. "I'm right here. You're safe now. I won't let them or anyone touch you ever again." 

"Pretty sure the doctors are gonna need to." 

"Nope." He pushed his head into my neck. "No. One." I felt my lips pull up in a smile. "I'll get a medical degree if they need me to. No one is touching you except me ever again." 

"Possessive much?"

"HEY! You just got kidnapped and abused for 2 fucking weeks. I nearly lost you for the second fucking time. I am allowed to be possessive over you. Get used to it." He kissed the side of my head. "We'll get your arm and these cuts looked at, home for a shower and to get changed and then-" 

"They know the code-" 

"Oh I know. I moved everything important out of there the second you disappeared. Figured that'd be the first place they went. I got you a load of clothes, makeup, stuff you'd want. They're at my place just outside of town. Don't worry."